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18 hours ago
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National Rugby League chief executive Andrew Abdo is set to make one of the great leaps across Australia’s sporting divide with reports linking him to a job with Tennis Australia.
He is scheduled to formally announce his departure from the NRL at a press conference on Monday afternoon, but the new leadership structure at one of most influential organisations in world tennis remains unclear.
Abdo replaced Todd Greenberg as NRL chief executive in 2020 having spent much of the preceding decade in a commercial role at the organisation.
Alongside influential Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’landys, Abdo has consolidated rugby league’s financial health and expanded the competition’s footprint into Papua New Guinea and Western Australia.
He is set to leave just as negotiations intensify over the next NRL broadcast and player pay deals, and he has also been leading negotiations around the NRL buying a stake in Europe’s Super League competition.
Craig Tiley, chief executive at Tennis Australia, announced earlier this year he would be taking on the same role with the US Tennis Association.
International executive recruitment firm Egon Zehnder has been responsible for finding Tiley’s replacement since his departure was announced in February.
The plan at that stage was for Tiley to stay for “the coming months” to support a smooth transition.
Speculation around contenders to replace him included Tom Larner, the current chief tennis officer, chief of events Stephen Farrow, as well as Tennis Queensland chief executive, Cameron Pearson.
Tiley’s departure, after more than two decades with Tennis Australia, represents a significant shift in the country’s sporting landscape. His tenure has not been perfect – his inability to prevent Novak Djokovic’s deportation was a blow to the executive who portrays himself as player-friendly – but under his guidance the Australian Open has transitioned from a tennis event to a broader cultural phenomenon, attracting spectators interested in eating, drinking, fashion and music.
Fuelled by the Australian Open, Tennis Australia revenues are now around $700m per year, behind only the AFL and NRL among Australian sporting organisations.
Tiley was born in South Africa before he moved in his 20s to the US, where he went to college and became a respected tennis coach. He shifted to Melbourne to become Tennis Australia’s director of player development in 2005.
At the time, he said: “I am looking forward to taking on a significant leadership role in international tennis.”
Tiley became Australian Open tournament director in 2006 and chief executive in 2013.
Coincidentally, Abdo was also born in South Africa. He worked in finance in Johannesburg before he moved to Sydney in 2012 to take up a role with Deloitte.
During his time at the NRL he helped the sport navigate the Covid pandemic and established the the now annual Las Vegas season launch.
He has also overseen radical changes to the game’s rules, including the introduction of set restarts for minor infringements, which have not always been popular with players and fans.
